We have benefited enormously from the many people who took time to share their thoughts with us about America’s future. Byron Auguste, Michael Barber, Curtis Carlson, Susan Engel, Hal Harvey, Craig Mundie, Joe Romm, and last but certainly not least, Dov Seidman, all deserve our special thanks for not only contributing their ideas but also reading portions of the manuscript for us.
In addition, we want to thank, for sharing their time and insights, Peter Ackerman, Léo Apotheker, Don Baer, Evan Bayh, Robert Bennett, Mike Biddle, Joel Cawley, Alan Cohen, Martin Dempsey, Larry Diamond, John Doerr, Arne Duncan, Russ Feingold, Joel Finkelstein, Jeff Garten, Bill Gates, Lindsey Graham, Jennifer Granholm, Jeffrey Immelt, Bob Inglis, Michael Johnston, PV Kannan, Andy Karsner, David Kennedy, Wendy Kopp, Alan Kotz, Ellen Kullman, Ray Lane, Jeffrey Lesk, Michael Maniates, Jack Markell, Stan McChrystal, Ernie Moniz, Mike Murphy, Paul Otellini, Sam Palmisano, Raghuram Rajan, Kasim Reed, Ken Rogoff, Diane Rosenberg, David Rothkopf, Michael Sandel, Dan Simpkins, Alan Simpson, Brad Smith, K. R. Sridhar, Robert Stevenson, Joe Stiglitz, David Stockman, Subra Suresh, Jerry Tarde, Marc Tucker, Chuck Vest, James R. Vivian, Tony Wagner, David Walker, and Randi Weingarten.
Tom also wants to thank his bosses, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the chairman of the Board of the New York Times Company, and Andy Rosenthal, the editorial page editor, for making possible the leave he needed to work on this book. That leave coincided with the “Arab Spring,” and, thanks to Arthur and Andy, Tom was able to move back and forth from book-writing to column-writing as events dictated.
Our literary agent, Esther Newberg, as always, contributed her ideas as well as her business prowess and we benefited from both.
Our assistants, Gwenn Gorman of The New York Times and Kelley J. Kornell of The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, were invaluable in keeping the trains running on time as we each maintained our day jobs while writing this book.
This is Tom’s sixth book with Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Michael’s first, and it would not have been possible without the vision of FSG’s best-in-the-business president and publisher, Jonathan Galassi, and his team: Jeff Seroy, Sarita Varma, Debra Helfand, Susan Goldfarb, Jonathan Lippincott, and Jill Priluck.
A special mention, though, goes to this book’s FSG editor, Paul Elie. His devotion to our project and contribution to every page is deeply appreciated by us both. He has been a real partner.
Finally, as we note in the dedication, this book benefited enormously from two other people closer to home: Tom’s wife, Ann Friedman, who, besides teaching school, edited the manuscript, and Michael’s wife, Anne Mandelbaum, who not only gave us her wise counsel and support, but also asked during one of our phone conversations the most important question of all: “Why don’t you two write a book about all this?”